194 



HARD WICKE ' S SCIE NCE- G O SSI P. 



be purchased as "slides" — being "recent," they 

 can only be obtained from dredged algae, and require 

 the closest searching ; frequently amidst the built up 

 atoms of these "tests" are particles of brilliant 

 colour, aiding the general elegance of the object. 

 Many, loosely compacted, have no definite surface, 

 others, apparently more solid, when fractured and the 

 interior revealed, appear under the microscope as 

 nests of stones, cemented with the precision of mosaic 

 work ; various substances are frequently intermixed, 

 curious sponge spicules, and fragments of the dead 

 shells of their relations, may be found imbedded in 

 the general mass. 



Fossil remains are abundant, and in immense 

 profusion, in the sedimentary strata, calcareous 

 rocks, limestones, many of the clays, and notably 

 in the chalk; the dust falling from the fracture 

 of a minute piece may contain countless specimens. 

 Curious and somewhat hypothetical calculations of 

 numbers have been attempted. A reliable authority 

 states that a cubic inch of limestone imbeds fifty- 

 eight thousand of these shells, and that in the 

 stones of Paris the miliolidae are so abundant that 

 the city may be said to be built by them. 



Recent dead specimens may be sifted from the 

 ridges of sand left by tides, in a living state on deep- 

 sea algae ; and dust from a case of freshly imported 

 sponges is most prolific. This debris, gently scattered 

 over a basin of cold water, will cause a separation, 

 the sand sinking ; the light shells, floating, may then 

 be skimmed off, carefully dried, and mounted. 



Crouch End. 



A SEPTEMBER PLANT-HUNT IN SOMERSET 

 AND DEVONSHIRE. 



IN the matter of numbers we were more successful 

 than last September, finding about one hundred 

 and ten species of flowering plants and ferns, together 

 with a few microscopic fungi. At Bath, out of four 

 species of micro-fungi that we found, two are not 

 mentioned in this journal in "Micro-fungi Batho- 

 nienses," by C. F. W. T. Williams. These are 

 Puccinia circece on enchanter's nightshade, and 

 Triphragmium ulmaricc on meadow-sweet, both in a 

 meadow near Freshford. Apropos of Triphragmium, 

 this species seems always to be rather local in its 

 habits ; in districts where Spinca ulmaria abounds it 

 frequently infects only one patch of this plant. The 

 other fungi found were Urocystis pompolygodes and 

 the ubiquitous JEcidium Tussilaginis. In flowering 

 plants we found Alchemilla vitlgaris at Freshford, not 

 noticed elsewhere in our tour ; Euphorbia amygda- 

 loides, Epipactis latifolia (probably var. purpurata), 

 Inula cotiyza, Malva moscliata, Symphytum officinale 

 (purple and white), Tanacetum vulgarc, Valerianclla 

 den lata, &c, and I have received specimens of Atropa 



Belladonna and Daphne laureola from an inhabitant. 

 Professor Babington has published a Flora of Bath. 



At Shepton Mallet, our next stopping-place, we 

 were in the home of the rusty-back {Ceterach officin- 

 aruni) which luxuriates in every old wall, and here 

 we also found abundance of Asplenium ruta-muraria, 

 A. tricho7?iancs, fine specimens of Scolopendriicm 

 vulgarc, and a plant of Polypodium vulgarc, with the 

 pinnae deeply serrate. In the Phanerogams, Cam- 

 panula latifolia, C. trachelium, Colchicutn autumnale, 

 both lilac and white varieties equally abundant, 

 Cotyledon umbilicus, Sedum lelephium and another 

 sedum not in flower {? rupestre). 



Fungi : Phragmidium obtusum, Puccinia violarum, 

 a rust covering the leaves of ^Arctium lappa, and 

 others not identified. 



Though a convenient centre for excursions, Shepton 

 is not overrun by holiday-makers. Thus a tourist 

 there once asked a native what were the principal 

 lions of the place. " Red Lion and White Lion, 

 sir," was the reply. 



We visited the Cheddar Cliffs, and of course did 

 not fail to spot Dianthus ccesius, though luckily 

 most of it is out of reach. Why it grows in such 

 abundance on these cliffs and nowhere else in 

 England, when there are similar rocks at Ebbor, and 

 other places in the vicinity, where it might equally 

 well grow, is one of those mysteries so difficult to 

 explain. Thalictrum minus, which also abounds, is 

 known locally as the " Cheddur furn " (Cheddar 

 fern). Farther up the gorge we find Polypodium 

 Robertianum, and, on turning up to the top of the 

 cliffs, Epipactis latifolia in a plantation, Gentiana 

 amarella on the exposed ground at the top. 



Glastonbury need only be mentioned, as the cele- 

 brated " Thorn " is already known to the readers 

 of Science-Gossip. Curiously there is nearly the 

 same legend at Mentone. A visitor going into one 

 of the houses is said to have stuck his walking-stick 

 in the ground and forgotten it, and the stick sprouted 

 and is now still growing in one of the places. By- 

 the-way, some plants seem to grow and flourish in 

 one's flower press. I gathered some Sedum telephium 

 and left it exposed in the open air to dry till the 

 leaves became [flaccid, then laid it in the press 

 and changed the papers once or twice. About a 

 fortnight later at Clovelly, I found white shoots 

 \\ inch long sprouting from txhe ails of the 

 dessicated leaves, with tiny leaflets on them, and 

 when placed in my water jug for a day or two, 

 they increased considerably in size and began to 

 turn green. And a plant of Cotyledon umbilicus 

 threw up a 'tiny white leaf in the press ; it is now 

 living in our garden, though the mice have bitten 

 it down once or twice. 



Another day we took the train to Masbury and 

 walked to the Roman Camp at the top of the 

 Mendips. On the neighbouring ground grew 

 Athyrium filix-foemina, Blechnum spicans, Digitalis 



